Well, this is about the only answer I could come up with:

"The longer your fingers the faster your nail grows. Your toes are shorter than your fingers so they grow slower. Fingernails grow approx 2X the rate of your toe nails."

Now, the problem with this is that it's not directly tied to the length of your fingers compared to toes. It has been proven that the fingernails grow roughly 2x the speed of the toenails; however, science hasn't figured out why.

My only theory is that at one point we had to use our fingernails for gathering, defense, etc. i.e. Living life and surviving. If you notice, toenails (or "claws") on animals have a tendency of growing more rapidly if they walk on concrete a lot. Their bodies seem to make them grow quicker to prevent "stubbing."

Since in my theory they played a purpose, our bodies would have had to produce them quicker as they would have been tools we needed biologically. This in turn may answer the question. :)
Source(s):
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_finger_nails_grow_faster_than_toe_nails

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1826173

Asker's Rating:

Permalink | Report